CoastHills Federal Credit Union recently donated $1,000 to support the Mission Hope Cancer Center in a way of honoring PD Patel, a business member at CoastHills who lost his life to cancer in July of this year. The center is scheduled to open its doors in Santa Maria in summer 2010. The money donated by CoastHills will be set aside for people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford to stay overnight in the center.
The center will house all of a cancer patient’s needs under one roof. Currently, the only large facilities—such as in San Francisco and Los Angeles—offer such amenities.
“Treatment is exhausting,” said Atul Patel, cancer survivor and the son of PD Patel. “Patients often have chemotherapy and radiation therapy appointments in the same day, but on opposite sides of town. When you are in a weakened state, it’s difficult to drag yourself from one place to another.”
The center will be a network of UCLA, and will have hired help from three full-time UCLA nurses, as well as regular doctor visits and access to medical and radiation oncology, surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, plus comprehensive lab capabilities and procedures.
CoastHills is currently worth $600 million. If the center has unfulfilled needs, the credit union’s senior vice president of marketing, Scott Coe, said CoastHills might donate again in honor of PD Patel.
If you’re interested in contributing to the center, send donations to: Mission Hope Cancer Center, 220 South Palisade Dr., suite 204, Santa Maria, CA, 93454.
Intern Henry Houston compiled this week’s Community Corner. Send comments or ideas to the Sun via e-mail at intern@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2009.